14 films to compete for top prize at Shanghai Int'l Film Festival

A poster for "The Chinese Widow," starring Emile Hirsch and Liu Yifei. [Photo:Youth.cn]

Anticipation has been building up for this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, which is set to kick off later this month on June 17th.

Organizers of the event have just announced the finalists for this year's top Golden Goblet award. 14 films are competing for the top prize, including three Chinese ones. They are "The Conformist" by Cai Shangjun, "Our Time Will Come" by Ann Hui and "The Chinese Widow" by Academy Award winning Danish director Bille August.

Among them, "The Chinese Widow" is a film about an American pilot of the Flying Tigers who was saved by Chinese villagers after his plane was shot down by the Japanese forces during World War II. The film features American actor Emile Hirsch and famed Chinese actress Liu Yifei.

Other finalists include US film "Brigsby Bear," "In the Great and Terrible World" from Italy, as well as "Yellow" from Iran. Organizers of the film festival say more than 500 films will be shown during the nine-day event, which for the first time is including a special segment for short films.

Just ahead of the film event, this year's Shanghai TV Festival will kick off on Monday, June 12th. Among the candidates for the Magnolia Awards for Best TV Series (foreign) is "The Good Fight" from US broadcaster CBS. It is a sequel to the popular series "The Good Wife."

As announced by the Shanghai International Film Festival, feature films competing for this year's Golden Goblet Award include:

BRIGSBY BEAR (USA), directed by Dave McCary

THE CHINESE WIDOW (China), directed by Bille August

THE CONFORMIST (China), directed by Cai Shangjun

FAULT CONDITION (Romania), directed by Cătălin Saizescu

I’M A KILLER (Poland), directed by Maciej Pieprzyca

IN THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE WORLD (Italy), directed by Daniele Maggioni/ Laura Perini/ Maria Grazia Perria

KHARMS (Russia/ Lithuania/ Macedonia), directed by Ivan Bolotnikov

MAD TO BE NORMAL (Great Britain), directed by Robert Mullan

MY BROTHER SIMPLE (Germany), directed by Markus Goller

NO BED FOR ROSES (Bangladesh/ India), directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

OUR TIME WILL COME (China), directed by Ann Hui

PEDICAB (Philippines), directed by Paolo Villaluna

REMINISCENCE (Japan), directed by Yasuo Furuhata

YELLOW (Iran), directed by Mostafa Taghizad’h